


What If's

by etherealsapphic



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: I might add more characters further on, I'm not trying to make this very angsty or long, M/M, Molly and Arthur are just being supportive parents, background Albus and scorpius, background teddy and James, brief Astoria and Draco, brief ginny and harry romantic relationship, ginny and harry are more of a friendship type of relationship, ron and Hermione are being supportive friends, this is mostly focused on harry and draco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:53:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25743127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/etherealsapphic/pseuds/etherealsapphic
Summary: Then she signs the last paper, and she looks up at him and smiles softly, and Harry feels guilty at the weight that seems to lift off him because it’s official now, him and Ginny are no longer married. There is no more Harry and Ginny. No more Ginny and Harry. Just Harry. Just Ginny. And the children born when they were still in love.The thing is, this divorce thing wasn’t just Ginny’s idea or just Harry’s. They simply sat down one day side by side on their shared bed, and Harry found himself telling Ginny that he felt like they hadn’t really been in love for a really long time now. And Ginny in return had held his hand gently and said that sometimes people fall out of love and that it was okay because sometimes shit just happens.-Harry and Ginny get a divorce because they realize that although they love each other, they aren't IN love with one another anymore. Two years after the divorce Harry is now the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor at Hogwarts, and Draco is now the new Potions professor, and Harry thinks maybe it's okay to let himself fall in love again.
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass/Draco Malfoy, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy/Albus Severus Potter, Teddy Lupin/James Sirius Potter
Comments: 2
Kudos: 56





	What If's

**Author's Note:**

> Just putting it out there that I do not like JK Rowling despite loving the world she created, and I don't agree with her transphobic views. This is a safe place for everyone despite gender, sexuality, race, religion, etc.
> 
> On another note: This isn't going to be super lengthy or anything, I just think that this story works best divided in chapters for certain points in Harry's life, so it's probably going to be like three or four chapters long. The other chapters will be longer than this one I promise.  
> Also I think that Harry and Ginny are a very good dynamic, but I personally see them as a good platonic ship.  
> Also I think Harry should've 100% been a professor like wtf, so this is also to indulge myself cause fuCK it.  
> Anyways I hope you guys enjoy :)

Harry wonders how he ended up here. 

He thinks it’s funny how most times when you’re doing things you don’t really stop to think what the long term consequences are going to be. What if he and Ginny had never dated when they were so young and in the midst of a war? Or what if he had chosen to be a professor at Hogwarts like he had realized he wanted years after the war ended rather than the well known Auror he became? Or what if Ginny had chosen a different career path that was more grounded rather than actually following her passion for quidditch? He wonders if he would still be in the situation he’s in now. If he would have ever known what loving Ginny was like? He wonders if they had changed anything at all from their pasts if they would have somehow still found their way to each other and had James? And Albus? And Lily? 

_ “You’d both be miserable without them,”  _ he thinks to himself. No matter what choices they made in the past, no matter if the consequences were good or bad, he knows that what will always be agreed on between him and Ginny is that their three children are their pride and joy. Neither one of them could ever regret their children. 

James was only eight years old and he was already so full of mischief. Harry would always find Ginny’s eyes full of the same fond look whenever James got himself into some sort of trouble because they both agreed that if anyone was going to take after Fred and George it would be their oldest. Albus was quiet, and even though he was only seven years old he tried really hard to be seen as mature which always made Harry want to laugh because this was the same kid that tripped down the stairs of their home on purpose because it made Lily laugh for the first time since their cat had died a few months prior. Lily Luna was wise in a way that reminded Harry and Ginny of her second namesake, because Lily was very much a free spirit at five years old, but sometimes she would sit in Harry’s lap and trace his lightning bolt scar, and he swears to Ginny that it’s almost like she can see the pain behind the scar. She’ll sit there and look at him and then tell him he’ll be okay. Ginny says that their youngest always somehow knows when she’s had a nightmare because she’ll greet Ginny in the mornings with something along the lines of  _ “Mommy the bad dream catcher didn’t work. I make you another one,”  _ and off she would go to make something similar to a dreamcatcher for Ginny. 

So Harry is sure that despite all the wandering his mind might do, he will never ever question his children with Ginny. 

But still, Harry’s mind continues to wander because he hasn’t really sat down to process the fact that he and Ginny are getting a divorce. He wants to look back at everything they ever did and pinpoint exactly where things changed because Harry is sitting across from Ginny at the kitchen table without an actual answer. Ginny is signing the last few papers, and Harry is nursing a mug of coffee while he watches. Then she signs the last paper, and she looks up at him and smiles softly, and Harry feels guilty at the weight that seems to lift off him because it’s official now, him and Ginny are no longer married. There is no more  _ Harry _ and  _ Ginny _ . No more  _ Ginny _ and  _ Harry _ . Just Harry. Just Ginny. And the children born when they were still in love. 

The thing is, this divorce thing wasn’t just Ginny’s idea or just Harry’s. They simply sat down one day side by side on their shared bed, and Harry found himself telling Ginny that he felt like they hadn’t really been  _ in  _ love for a really long time now. And Ginny in return had held his hand gently and said that sometimes people fall out of love and that it was  _ okay  _ because sometimes  _ shit just happens.  _ And it had been just an ordinary night. They talked some more and then slept in a bed that had seemed to stretch miles between them. The next day at breakfast before the kids woke up they agreed to end their marriage. 

And now Harry and Ginny are again sitting across one another over breakfast, but now they are officially divorced. And he feels like there is so much they need to talk about, and Ginny has been his best friend as well as his partner since before they even got married, so he knows she’s waiting. She’s letting him sort out his thoughts before he speaks because she also knows there’s a lot of things that need to be said and discussed and decided. 

_ “I still love you Ginny,”  _ is the first thing he can say because even though he knows that she probably already knows that, he wants her to hear it from him. And she grins at him in such a playful, Ginny-like way that Harry briefly forgets that they’re ending their life together. 

_ “Of course you do Harry. I’ve never doubted it. Kind of hard not to dontcha think?”  _ she responds as her grin stretches into a smile and he chuckles and feels some of the tension in his shoulders leave because this is  _ Ginny _ . This is the woman that went out at three in the morning to a local store to find the four scariest masks she could find, woke all three kids up, and then they all scared him awake all for shits and giggles cause she thought it would be hilarious (and Harry will always fervently deny that he squealed from actual fear whenever the occurrence is brought up). This was the same woman that danced around the kitchen to corny boy bands. The same woman that would compete with Harry on who could make the other laugh the hardest at important events in which they were expected to behave, but really they couldn’t help themselves because they both hated being important public figures sometimes. This was the very same woman who knew his nightmares almost as well as she knew her own. This was the woman that led a student revolution during a war, and then proceeded to follow her passion rather than finding a boring office job because she has too much fire in her to ever sit still for too long. This was  _ Ginny _ , this was his  _ best friend _ . And he looks at her with love in his eyes because he’s being honest, he really does love Ginny.

_ “How long have you known we weren’t in love anymore?” _ he asks her because he realized it about a year and a half ago, but it had probably happened even before then. 

_ “Two years ago I was getting ready for an interview, and you kissed me goodbye, and I realized we hadn’t kissed each other in weeks, and we hadn’t had sex in even longer, but we didn’t really notice it because...i think we just didn’t want each other like that any more. I was late to the interview because I sat down and just kept thinking to myself…” “yeah?” “yeah,”  _ and she smiles at him like she’s letting him know she’s not hurting. 

_ “I still love you too Harry, but I think we fell into this routine life, and we just didn’t notice when we fell out of love, and it’s a beautiful life, but we just grew out of it at some point I think,”  _ and Harry has always admired the way that Ginny can sometimes voice his thoughts exactly the way he wants to, but can’t quite figure out how to get the words out. Harry smiles at her letting her know that he’s okay too.

Molly watches the kids that day, and Ginny and him spend the day at home like they normally would, but now they discuss who the kids are going to stay with, how to explain things to them, when they’re going to look for new places to live, how they’re going to break the news to their family. Harry feels closer to Ginny all day than he has in months, and when they go to bed that night he holds her close, and the knot in his chest that he hadn’t even realized was there, finally disappears. 

_ “We’re going to be okay.” _

_ “ Of course we are Harry...you and me always remember?” _

_ “Yeah...you and me always, love” _

For the first time in a long time they don’t feel any distance between them. 

  
  



End file.
